ATTC Alternate Ending
by A. Matthew Van Dyne
Summary: This ending may be better liked by those who felt the ending was somewhat abrupt.


-1

The wine that was to be consumed by the thirsty third estate that day was carried in six bottles to the guillotine. Among them was a grape that was not yet ripe. One that had substituted itself so that one ripe grape, that was very special to him and his friends, might go free. Positioned next to him was one of the smallest and least mature of these grapes. A young girl that was the only person to share his secret barring the grape he had saved and the little bottler that had helped him make the switch. He had promised the young woman that he would stand by her until the end, and that was what he was determined to do. On its way to the guillotine the bottles rode through a crowd brainwashed by the leadership of a man and wife out for sheer revenge. The people hoping to consume the wine on that day were now blindly pursuing a goal whose window of opportunity had closed.

The bottle pulled up to the guillotine with the grape whose importance was immeasurable to his friends in the third bottle. The guillotine crushed the first two bottles with the ease that came with experiencing committing such atrocities. Sydney Carton could be found last in line of all the grapes in bottle three. Each grape went forward one by one to be crushed. Finally it was Sydney Carton's turn. He laid his head down to prepare for his impending doom. Suddenly a call came from Defarge in the front row. He yelled mockingly, "Darnay, do you have any last words".

Darnay responded, " Yes, actually I do. I'm up here because I was denounced by my good friend Dr. Manette. I now pass that favor along to you. I hereby denounce the Defarges and all their associates until the end of time. If you believe that I am truly evil then I guess I shall see you in the depths of the underworld".

The crowd then called, " Three!", but then a buzz began to run throughout the crowd. The citizens finally coming out of their drunken stooper was finally realizing that they had committed atrocities against innocent. They finally knew that they had blindly followed two leaders in blind rage. There was at that moment a simultaneous cry from the crowd, screaming, " Down with the Defarges and down with their closest associates!".

The leading carriage pulled into the small town of Beauvais. It had been 25 years since the good doctor formerly residing in that town had set foot in that town. Dr. Manette had a plan. A plan that could redeem not only himself, but the name of his son-in-law Charles Darnay. He was going to at least in that one town make sure that Sydney Carton's tragic death for the good of the doctor's family might mark the end of a blindly pursued revolution for which some had tried to make him the poster boy. It was for that reason that he went to see his former friend who as a result of the good doctor's imprisonment had begun the revolutionary movement in Beauvias. The doctor said this to his friend, " I have urgent business that must be addressed to your revolutionaries. It is my opinion that you may not fully understand the problem".

His friend responded, " Yes! We surely would hate to not even understand our cause, although I'm not quite sure what the problem is".

The doctor formerly residing in that town said, " You shall soon enough understand the exact meaning of what I have said. I shall tell everyone at tonight's meeting. Until tonight my good friend".

The crowd dragged Mr. Defarge and the Vengeance up to the guillotine. The former mender of the roads sat in the center of the first row. For the first time that anyone could remember he was not smiling. The two most unlikely grapes were now being dragged to the guillotine. They put up the best protest they could, but not a man or woman in Saint-Antoine had any sympathy for these two grapes save the former mender of the roads. The sourest of juice ever spewed by that guillotine was spewed by those two grapes that day. Despite this fact, the people of every class of Saint-Antoine drank of the sweetest wine they had ever drank that day. For the people who had for so long lived on the bitter wine of revenge had emerged from their drunken stooper some for the first time in a decade. This certainly did not mark the end of oppression as such a condition is a difficult beast to defeat, but finally someone was recognizing that their was a problem and formulating a solution that didn't oppress some other group.

Mr. Mantette got up in front of the meeting that night and said, " I have called you all here tonight because I think that some people may not understand the situation. Many of you may know my story, but for those of you who don't I will begin there. I was imprisoned by two aristocrat brothers because I tried to tell the authorities of the fact that they were killing people. I was released as the aristocrats power began to wane. It is since then that I have lived in England where my daughter married the son of one of these brothers. The unfortunate thing is that this son of the brothers had no desire to become an aristocrat like his father, and that is how he ended up in England. Today that good man was executed by my former assistant and a sister of one of the families that the brothers tried to kill in Saint-Antoine. They have been blindly pursuing revenge against people who did nothing wrong for many years. This is just one of the tragic cases of revolutionary oppression. This revolution was supposed to bring equality, but it has instead found the third estate putting itself above everyone else. It is for this reason that I must urge you to end the revolution. It has become misguided". This speech was followed by shouts of approval from the crowd. That crowd would never again commit an act against the aristocracy sheerly to seek revenge.

Several weeks passed after this triumph as the party passed through the French countryside. The party finally reached the English Channel. Lucie had been feeling ill for several days. Finally for fear of serious illness her father, the good doctor of Beauvais, examined her. After a quick examination Dr. Manette tried to say as he held back his sheer joy, " My dear Lucie, nothing is wrong. You and your dear husband are just bringing me yet another joy into this world". Unforunately celebration did not insue because at this moment, knowing his life's mission was more complete than he could have possibly imagined, the man who had been a greater companion to that family than any other passed on to a world greater than any other.

As all of this occurred the newly spiritual Jerry Cruncher wrote a moving description of the times that the group had endured because of their love for each other. It would be read at the funerals of Mr. Jarvis Lorry and Sydney Carton as well as the funeral of every other member of the group. Due to its moving nature and the power of the story it told this description would become famous both in England and France. It would be read even at the funerals of Little Lucie and her little sister who would remain unnamed because minutes after entering this world she was united with the two great men whose lives had been devoted so that she might live for just these few minutes. Miss Pross would never regain her hearing, but she developed the divine ability to hear the voices of the two little children lost by the woman so close to her as if they were in the room with her.

The statement read by Mr. Cruncher at these funerals read as follows: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom brought on by Mr. Lorry and his best friend Dr. Manette, it was the age of foolishness as the Defarges blindly pursued a revenge whose window of opportunity had long passed, it was the epoch of belief that the death of a man related only by blood to two great oppressors would make their wrongs right, it was the epoch of incredulity from a family just seeking peace that such atrocities could be brought upon them, it was the season of light radiating from that little apartment in Soho, it was the season of darkness coming from a little wine shop in a little suburb of Paris, it was the spring of hope however small that these atrocities might end, it was the winter of despair finding that this hope was in vain, but in the end the Manettes and Darnays had everything before them, and clearly the Defarges had nothing before them except judgment by a king far more powerful than the one they had fought to bring down, the great companions of a family, who had fought every type of turmoil possible in their lives, were going direct to heaven, and Saint-Antoine's great oppressors of the aristocracy were headed straight the other way.


End file.
